Abraham's Faith  Genesis 12:1-3, 17:1-8  Tom Faggart

In a broadcast during WWII, King George VI quoted the following lines from the GATE OF THE YEAR BY M. Louise Haskins:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate to the year: "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."

He replied:

"God out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way".

The lesson of the morning is God's call to Abraham to follow him into the unknown, and it is the same call that comes to you and me today.

All of us have heard great stories of how faith has brought a new day into the life of an individual. We celebrate miraculous events with great excitement and emotion. Sometimes it is a healing, others a welcomed change of fortune.

When the great apostle Paul talked about faith his favorite example was Abraham in the Old Testament. "By Faith Abraham walked with God. By faith Abraham packed up his whole family and was led by God into the unknown. Because of that faith God made his posterity as numerous as the stars of the sky, and the sands of the sea shore."

How about this experience of Abraham's? Most of the time we visualize a chance meeting, and agreement, and an exciting journey. It was not that way at all. Let's view it for a moment.

In the first lesson we see God and Abraham's initial meeting. Abraham was 75 year's old. God promised him an heir, and offspring as vast as the sands by the sea. Abraham went!

In the meantime his wife Sarah waited on God as long as she could. No child so she brought her handmaiden to Abraham so he could have a body heir. It wasn't exactly what they thought God had promised, however, maybe that was what he meant.

Twenty five years later God reappears. This time Abraham is nearing 100 and his wife is now 90 years old. Sarah is going to have Isaac says God. Sarah laughs! Surely God is a great jokester.

Twenty five years Abraham had waited, and remained faithful to God. He had traveled into the unknown. He had prospered, but no heir. How often we expect God to act now.

Mary Tilgman, in New Canaan, Connecticut ...wrote a personal testimony in the February issue of Guideposts. She and her husband wanted to adopt a young Korean Orphan. They worked for months to accomplish their wish. During that time a picture of the child they were to adopt was sent. They prayed and prayed, and believed that God was going to help. Then there was a series of problems. Discouragement set in ...  they went to a Chinese Restaurant for a meal. At the end of the meal they were given a "FORTUNE COOKIE". Her's read:

Love is fragile as a flower and rare as a pearl.

Her child's name meant Pearl Flower. She took this as a sign of faith. Three weeks later her child arrived to the states. A couple of months waiting on God had frazzled her emotions, and brought her to the point of total disappointment.

When Jesus left the Mt. of Transfiguration God sent him to Jerusalem. He knew when he went to Jerusalem that the gig was up. He was traveling where he thought God wanted him to go. During this time his whole personality changed. From a gentle and mild person he was transformed into a determined individual willing to inflict pain to prove a point ...he drove the money changers out of the temple.

He met with his disciples in the Temple Court Yard. There he taught the people. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He made his way to the Temple for the Celebration of the Passover. Then into the Upper Room. All this time he was moving in fear of his life. He felt God had called him to do this. At the end came Gethsemane and the cross. All because he was traveling with God.

For Abraham God brought only the good things, even though he was slow in doing so. He made his descendants as numerous as one man could count. His name is and has been known for thousands of years as a man who served God... a man of faith.

Between these two extremes God calls us to be his people in our day. He calls us to stand for moral and ethical living in a world gone mad.

He calls for us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, bind up the sick and wounded in life. He calls us to be his people in the world today. He calls us to go where he wants us to go, and to do what he wants us to do.  Will you go with Him?